KINGSTON HUNDRED 



MALDEN 



MALDEN 



Meldone (xi cent.), Maldone, Melden, Maiden, 

 &c. passim. 



Maiden is a small village nearly 3 miles south- 

 east of Kingston. The Hogsmill Stream divides it 

 from Talworth in Long Ditton. It stands upon the 

 London Clay, being one of the few ancient villages 

 in Surrey which stand on this soil. An outlying part 

 of the parish, separated from the rest of it by Tal- 

 worth and Chessington and adjacent to Ashtead and 

 Letherhead commons, 3 miles or more away from 

 the main portion, was amalgamated with Chessington 

 in 1884. Ecclesiastically the latter parish has always 

 been a chapelry of Maiden. 



The London and South Western Railway line to 

 Epsom runs through Maiden, and Worcester Park 

 station is in the parish. Worcester Park represents 

 the J 20 acres which Henry VIII took from the 

 manor of Merton College in Maiden to add to 

 Nonsuch Great Park, but most of the residential 

 neighbourhood now known as Worcester Park is in 

 Cuddington. 



The present parish measures rather more than a 

 mile in each direction, and contains 842 acres. It 

 is a rural parish not very thickly inhabited. It must 

 be distinguished from New Maiden, a new district in 

 Kingston parish; especially as the parish of Maiden is 

 under the New Maiden Urban District Council. 



The history of Maiden is involved with that of 

 Merton College, Oxford. Walter de Merton, chancellor 

 of England and Bishop of Rochester, whose foundation 

 of Merton College, Oxford, afforded the example and 

 pattern of statutes which were followed by all subse- 

 quent collegiate foundations in Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge, is commonly said to have founded a college 

 first at Maiden. Walter was called de Merton, 

 probably from education or residence there. His 

 parents, it appears from his will, were buried at Basing- 

 stoke. But he was very possibly of the family of 

 the Wateviles who held Maiden and much other 

 land under the Clares. His arms, as recorded at 

 Merton College, were differentiated from those of 

 Watevile, and he probably acquired Maiden Manor 

 from his own relatives (see account of manor). His 

 charter of 1 264 ' implies that the manor was for 

 the benefit of scholars in the schools of Oxford, 

 and that the only ' college ' at Maiden consisted of a 

 warden and priests who looked after the property. 

 It is only the modern perversion of the word 

 'college,' to mean a sort of school, which has led to 

 the confusion. The grant of Maiden Church by 

 the priory of Merton to Walter for the same end 

 bears out the same explanation. The revenues of 

 the church were for the support ' Scolarium in Scolis 



degentium, et ministrorum altaris Christi in ipsa domo 

 (sc. the manor house of Maiden) commorantium'. The 

 scholars were in schools (the plural term possibly show- 

 ing that the reference is not to the foundation at 

 Maiden). The 'college' of three or four priests 

 was in the house at Maiden. The latter migrated to 

 Oxford after the foundation there was complete. A 

 John de Maiden was Provost of Oriel College in 

 1394-1401. 



The national schools were founded in 1869, and 

 enlarged in 1878 and in 1 88 1. 



At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 MANOR MALDEN formed part of the large fiefs 

 of Chertsey Abbey and of Richard de 

 Tonbridge. It was chiefly included in the land of 

 the latter, whose holding in Maiden was four hides 

 with a chapel and a mill. The land of Chertsey 

 was assessed at one hide less a virgate.* Chertsey 

 must have lost at an early date her lands in Maiden, 

 for there is no further mention of the abbey in 

 connexion with this parish, and the only overlords 

 mentioned in later times are the descendants of 

 Richard de Tonbridge. The overlordship passed 

 through Eleanor sister and co-heiress of Gilbert de 

 Clare to the Despensers, and descended to Isabel, 

 Countess of Warwick. 3 It probably came to the 

 Crown, as Long Ditton (q.v.) came, by the settle- 

 ment of the Countess of Warwick's estates upon her 

 daughters in 1474, the subsequent attainder of their 

 respective husbands, the Duke of Clarence and 

 Richard III, the restoration of the estates to the 

 widowed Countess of Warwick, and her immediate 

 settlement of them on Henry VII. 



In 1086 Robert de Watevile was tenant of Maiden 

 under Richard de Tonbridge, and William de Wate- 

 vile held of Chertsey. 4 In 1225 the Wateviles' 

 holding in Maiden was three knights' fees, and at this 

 date Richard de Vabadun impleaded Hamo de 

 Watevile concerning these fees. 5 



Before 1216, however, the Wateviles seem to 

 have subinfeudated a part at least of their holding * 

 to a family with the local name. Eudo de Maiden 

 son of William held land here in the reign of 

 Henry II. 7 A Brian son of Ralph and his wife Gun- 

 nora, possibly Eudo's daughter, held land in Maiden in 

 the early 1 3th century, 8 and in 1205 they disputed 

 the possession of the advowson with the Prior of 

 Merton (see advowson). Brian was succeeded by his 

 sen Euio de Maiden, who held two knights' fees in 

 Maiden.' In 1249 Eudo's cousin and heir Peter de 

 Cuddington alias de Maiden with the consent of 

 William de Watevile granted the manor of Maiden to 

 Walter de Merton, 10 to whom a further conveyance 



1 Harl. Chart. 53 H. 12 (copy) and at 

 Merton Coll. Oxford. 



y.C.H. Surr. i, 317. 



'Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68 ; 

 Inq. a.q.d. file 286, no. 9 ; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 49 Edw. Ill, pt ii, no. 46; 18 

 Hen. VI, no. 3. 



*y.C.H. Surf, i, 317. 



* Maitland, Bracton's Note Book, no. 

 1077. 



They evidently retained some land in 



Maiden, to judge by a grant from Wil- 

 liam de Watevile to Alcer de la Dune in 

 1235. Feet of F. Surr. 19 Hen. Ill, no. 

 189. 



'Cur. Reg. R. 42 (7-8 John), m. 

 3 d. 



8 Close, 17 John, pt. ii, m. 16. 



See Feet of F. Surr. 3 i Hen. Ill, no. 

 306. 



10 Kilner, Aceti. of Pythagoras School, 

 60. To judge from his arms Walter de 



523 



Merton may himself have been descended 

 from the Wateviles, as the Maidens may 

 have been ; Merton, Maiden, Cudding- 

 ton being strictly names from locality, 

 applied to branches of the same family. 

 Farley (q.v.), which Walter de Merton 

 also acquired, was held by Robert de Wate- 

 vile in 1086, and it appears 1 from the 

 descent there that William de Watevile 

 was heir to Peter de Maiden or Cudding- 

 ton when the latter conveyed it to Walter. 



